Video: Allergic to the Ancients | with Jonatan Anabalon

Reading the Zen Ox-Herding Pictures with Hegel and Plato

The latest episode of Samsara Audio was released earlier this week, but I know that followers of Samsara Audio prefer different mediums for listening, so I’m emailing to make you aware of the YouTube video for my conversation with Jonatan Anabalon, “Allergic to the Ancients.”

Jonatan and I came together for a conversation to explore some tensions we had been experiencing between the words and motifs that seemed to dominate our thinking in group contexts. Coming from a Hegelian angle, I often found myself wanting to modify or qualify Jonatan’s claims, and while Jonatan finds much of value in the modern critical approach, he feels strongly about exploring and recovering the value on offer in older traditions.

This conversation started with a discussion of the Zen Ox-Herding pictures, moved to Lacan and Hegel, and then continued into the power of symbolism, and what our use of particular metaphors says about how we see ourselves. I heartily recommend this conversation. I hope that you’ll give it a listen!

If you want to go deeper on questions like this, Jonatan and I (along with some other great folks) are reading Nishida Kitaro’s An Inquiry into the Good at Samsara Study Groups. It’s every other Saturday morning at 10 AM (Pacific).

Below you’ll find a transcript for premium subscribers of Samsara Audio. Subscribe today to get access to all past and future transcripts!